Conservative group plays down danger of date-rape drugs with weird animation
A webseries produced by the conservative American Enterprise Institute argued that women are overly worried about being assaulted via a date-rape drug when they should be more concerned with monitoring their alcohol intake, Talking Points Memo reported.
“The reason why fear of drink-spiking has become widespread seems to be a mix of being more convenient to guard against, and the fact that such stories are exotic,” “Factual Feminist” guest host Caroline Kitchens says, citing a University of Kent researcher. “Like a more adult version of ‘stranger danger.’”
Kitchens criticized unspecified “feminists” for making women alter their behavior when going out under fear of “some vague improbable threat.”
The video also featured an animated re-enactment of a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee fraternity party that led to the fraternity’s suspension after women who attended the event told authorities that there were separate “all you can drink” cards sold to women who were considered “hot.”
Three women and one man were hospitalized after the party, Kitchens said, but she emphasized that no “date rape drugs” were found at the fraternity house, using finger quotes to illustrate her point.
She also called for a “reality check” regarding concerns over drug-induced sexual assault.
“Just think about it,” Kitchens said. “It requires the stranger to find the drugs, slip them into a woman’s drink undetected, manage to take the victim away from her friends without anyone noticing, and then reliably erase her memory of the experience.”
Watch the video, as posted online on Monday, below.